Fundraising tops £10,000 – our Burma school opens!
A very big thank you to everyone who bought raffle tickets and purchased photographs from our online exhibition. We managed to raise over £10,000 towards the school building in Burma, well over our £8,000 target, which means that as well as building the school itself we were able to buy school furniture and some stationery.
Building work started as soon as the first money was donated, so the school was completed ready for the new term. There was a grand opening ceremony on 23rd October, and children, parents and teachers enjoyed a simple lunch of “monhinga” (a local favourite food made with thin, soft rice noodles in a fish based broth) after the ceremony with invited guests from the Township Education Office.
There is still a lot of floodwater in the vicinity of the school, and one thing we have looked into is better irrigation for the land in the area. But, this is proving very difficult as the whole area is wetland. There is also a tidal creek at the back of the school which floods during the rainy season. The village and the school cover a very large area and it will cost a lot for irrigation and drainage, so as an intermediate solution we have a plan to build better flood defences.
We also still need to repair the lane (from the school to the main road), but the Paya Ngotto (North) Primary School is now fully open, and we are looking forward to going out to visit next time we have a member of staff in Yangon.
We would like to take this opportunity to thank our clients, family and friends for supporting our Burma appeal and for helping to make it such a success.
2 Responses to “Fundraising tops £10,000 – our Burma school opens!”
Leave a Reply
Caitlin Chalmers on May 4th, 2009
Hi,
I am about to travel to Myanmar next week. I will be fundraising money and would like to use it to send some children to school for the duration of their elementary school years. I am looking into how to contact an appropriate school to pay the fees and enroll the children. Is the school you built a tuition based school? If so, I would be interested in enrolling some children if this is possible. If not, well done on opening it and take care.
Kind Regards,
Caitlin
Shaun Embury on May 13th, 2009
Dear Caitlin,
Thank you for your email and for your support of our fundraising efforts. I wanted to write to you directly but I will also be posting my reply here on our Audley Blog pages.
I am delighted to hear that you are travelling to Myanmar/Burma next week as it is a country that is very close to my heart. The people are incredibly friendly and welcome you to their country without any agenda. We have had a number of clients travelling to the school and all have chosen to take with them various stationary and useful items to help support the children’s learning.
It is however possible to sponsor a child’s education not only at Paya Ngoto but at other schools in Burma. Education at state schools is free, but parents still have to find money to pay for text books, school uniforms, school satchels, umbrellas or rain coats (as the school term starts in June, which is the start of the monsoon season), slippers (flip flops) and stationary (especially exercise books for the whole year). Most parents, particularly in the Paya Ngoto community fear the month of June as this is when the school opens and they need to find the money to buy necessities for their children’s schooling.
It is best to support a child through the school rather than giving money directly to a family, as this means that the teachers can distribute funds to those that need it most and possibly to more than one child depending on the amount of sponsorship. As a rough guide, the average expense for a primary school child is about 10,000 kyats per month (which is equivalent to around USD 10).
As I am unsure of your travel plans and what arrangements you already have in place, please let me know what additional information you may require. I hope you have a wonderful trip to Myanmar and if I can be of further assistance, I would be more than happy to help.
Kate Dicks
Southeast Asia Regional Manager